Hero's and Bad Influences
by LadyMoonSilver
Summary: Daddy's are always your first hero. One mild swear word that got a small child into trouble when she got home. Writer's can't be everywhere.


Disclaimer: Once more borrowing the services of some old friends.

All the original characters are from my overactive imagination.

Re-posting for editing.

A bad influence is in the eye of the beholder.

* * *

No one could pinpoint the exact day the trouble started, that is if you wanted to refer to it as 'trouble', when in actuality, it was an idea that formed and grew and eventually exploded into the reality of playground and principal's office. Chin Ho swore it started during the annual "Take Your Daughter To Work Day" when he'd brought his youngest along to the Five-O offices. Maggie and Lu insisted it was during the induction ceremonies for the Rose Warriors. Steve was convinced it was at the Fourth of July parade, where the child was first introduced to women wearing Class A military uniforms with all the ribbons and trimmings that went with them. The child had then manage to charm her way onto the grandstand and into the best seat in the house, where she had viewed the parade from the vantage point of the lap of the governor of Hawaii. Or maybe it went even deeper that, when a random pairing of DNA produced a tiny and precocious little girl with insatiable curiosity. Whenever it started, one thing was sure, Tilda Kelly, age eight, was growing up with some pretty definite ideas of right and wrong and duty. She was sure that Jason Okaua, age ten and big for his age, shouldn't be picking on younger and smaller children. She asked herself, what would a Rose Warrior do? The answer was simple. Stop him. That was why she was in the principal's office and why her dad had been summoned from work.

"Let me see if I understand this correctly," Chin said, trying his best to look serious while feeling inordinately proud of his youngest child, "you're telling me Tilda arrested this Jason Okaua kid for being a bully and drug him to the principal's office for booking?"

"Yes," said Sister Mary Joseph, "she even read him his rights and asked if he wanted a lawyer. Mr. Kelly, we cannot tolerate this type of behavior." Sister Mary Joseph was new to the school and to the Islands. Her last teaching assignment had been at a small exclusive girls school in Connecticut. She was having a difficult time assimilating to both the culture and diversity of Hawaii. "Mr. Kelly, when I asked your daughter why she arrested Jason she said that it was because women were delicate flowers who could inflict a lot of pain if they were handled wrong and in her way of thinking pulling Cathy Wong's hair was not how women should be handled."

"The kid's a bully. He got what he deserved."

"Mr. Kelly, that isn't up to your daughter to decide. She's a student, not the playground police. And that isn't all. If today's incident hadn't happened I would have called you in for a conference anyway. You have a very intelligent daughter, Mr. Kelly. However, she's got a runaway imagination and has a hard time telling fact from fantasy." Sister Mary Joseph took several sheets of notebook paper from a desk drawer. "Mr. Kelley, as you know at the beginning of every school year our English composition teacher still insists upon the dreaded "How I Spent My Summer" essay. This is your daughter's."

Instead of the usual title, this one was called "No Shit, I Was There" and it told of everything she had done that summer, including her adventures at the Fourth of July parade, meeting the Rose Warriors, and how she really hadn't made up her mind yet if she preferred Navy or Army uniforms. There were descriptions of Maggie, Lu, the Thompson Twins, and Beverly, of how women were now going off to war like men were and deserved the same respect when they got back. She wrote of her surprise of finding out that Auntie Lu was both a soldier and a mommy and that Auntie Beverly was going to be a police officer like her daddy. She also noted that if Uncle Danny had any sense he'd marry Auntie Beverly because anyone could see Auntie Beverly was crazy about him. Then she went on to add that this summer she had decided that when she was old enough she was going to join either the Army or the Navy because she wanted to be a Rose Warrior and get a tattoo on her left breast and when she was done with the military, she was going to be a police officer just like her daddy and Auntie Beverly and Uncle Steve, and Uncle Danny, and Uncle Kono and Uncle Duke, and bring criminals in for justice.

"I wasn't expecting stream of consciousness writing from an eight year old. She needs to learn the difference between fact and fantasy or it is only going to get her into more trouble in the future. She's been watching way too much TV."

"No, she's not, Sister," Chin said, nearly bursting with pride over his youngest. "Everything in here is true. That's what she did this summer. I'm not real thrilled with the title, but she was there."

"You mean all these people are real? The Rose Warriors and all the aunts and uncles?"

"My co-workers and their girlfriends. It's all true, including the part about watching the Fourth of July parade from Governor Jameson's lap. We always watched the parade from the lanai at Iolani Palace. Only this year she sneaked off for a better vantage point. She got into major trouble for that one. Her mother was frantic when she went missing."

"I don't understand, Mr. Kelley," Sister Mary Joseph said, more confused than ever. This was not how the conversation was suppose to go. By now Mr. Kelly should have apologizing for his child's behavior and asking about the steps that needed to be taken to correct it. Instead he just sat calmly across from her desk, obviously proud of his daughter.

"Listen, Sister," he said, "I'm a cop. I work for Five-O. She's grown up around cops and now she's growing up around a bunch of very strong and capable women. This summer she's met the governor of Hawaii and a group of female soldiers and sailors who left a lasting impression. All these people are real and are as much a part of our family as her mother and me. I suspect that she's just taught young Jason Okaua a lesson in respecting women that he isn't going to forget. I'll talk to her about fighting on the playground and using inappropriate language but don't expect me to ground her for doing the right thing."

"Mr. Kelly, we have a zero tolerance policy for playground violence. She and Jason are suspended for the rest of the week. I suggest that you and Mrs. Kelly be a bit more selective about the company she keeps from now on. I fear she may have fallen under a bad influence."

Chin collected Tilda and her book bag from the outer office. "Come one, baby. You get to spend the of the afternoon with me and the rest of the bad influences at Iolani." Chin said, wondering if the governor was included in the list of bad influences.

Tilda held her daddy's hand as they walked to the car.

Chin kept his daughter's essay in an envelope in the top drawer of his desk. Years later, on the day she graduated from Annapolis, the essay was returned to her by the woman who had loved and cared for her after her parents had gone. Ensign Tilda Kelly, resplendant in her new Navy dress white uniform with the gold bars sparkling on her shoulders, drew herself up to her full height of five foot one, and tried to keep the tearss from coming. She took a deep breath and for a brief moment, she could have sworn she caught the scent of the pipe tobacco she had always associated with her daddy. She looked around, hoping, yet knowing he wasn't there. Not physically at least. She knew he was watching, and still very proud of his little girl.

Her daddy would always be her hero.


End file.
